E3 '08: SCEA Press Event Bits
While most of Sony's news from today has been covered, there are a few details that need to be mopped up. So I give you, in no particular order except the illusion of sense that exists only in my tiny, tiny mind:
- Resistance 2 looks awesome. I see a giant monster towering over city blocks, then I see him pick up the player, who shoots rockets into his mouth. Somehow we survive. It's 1953 and most of the US border states are under control of Chimera, who's converted cities such as Chicago into viral red zones.
- Sony's announced a Greatest Hits program for the PS3 that repackages their most successful PS3 games into a nifty $29.99 price zone. Some titles: Resistance, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, Need for Speed: Carbon, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Assassin's Creed, Oblivion and Ninja Gaiden.
- Buzz!, the trivia game that has conquered Europe, will come to the PS3 at last.
- God of War III for PS3: there will be chaos.
- 130 new games for the PS2 this year as well as a $149.00 LEGO Batman bundle with both the game and the film Justice League: New Frontiers.
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction available this summer at the PlayStation Store for $14.99.
- Some new PSN games: Fat Princess, Eden (Pixel Junk), Pain: Amusement Park, FlOwer, Siren Blood Curse, Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic.
- Jack Tretton promised that our patience concerning Home would be well worth it. It better.
- Jack Tretton also said, in a sly dig at XBLA, that Sony was "not interested in filling up our shelves with games that nobody wants to play just so we can say that we have more games." Discuss.
- Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters silver PSP bundle with National Treasures 2: Book of Secrets and a 1GB memory stick for $199.00.
- New PSP Games: Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Madden 09, Loco Roco 2, NBA 09: The Inside, Super Stardust Portable, LEGO Batman, Patapon 2, Buzz! Master Quiz, Valkyria Chronicles.
- A YouTube channel for the PS3 as well as a potentially dicey live webcam feed-thingy called Life with PlayStation.
- Massive Action Game, or M.A.G. from Zipper Interactive lets up to 256 players dive into hellish war action and should change its name because the folks who'll play it will already be dishing out a word that rhymes with "mag."
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff on 15 July 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: e3, e3 2008, ps3
I didn't care for the Sony conference. There was way too much talking about how great they are, and not enough actual content.
They were unable to mask the fact that their lineup consists of multi-platform titles, PS2-generation games on the PlayStation Network and PSP, and non-gaming content. The only real things that they had were God of War III (and they only showed FMV, wow) Resistance 2 (I wasn't a fan of the first though, so eh) and MAG, which sounds like an interesting concept that will epically fail in practice, due to the sheer difficulty of having 256 players on a network game. (lag, anybody?) Oh yeah, and the DC Universe game, which everybody will think is great until they understand that they only get to be a generic superhero who looks dumb when compared to Batman, etc.
I thought the most telling moments were when they showed footage of MGS4 to say how great their lineup is. When you're still touting a game that's already out, you know you've got problems. MGS4 is a killer app, but they need more - and fast.
Luckily for them everybody else's conferences sucked too, so maybe everybody will have a shitty holiday season in terms of sales.
"Jack Tretton also said, in a sly dig at XBLA, that Sony was "not interested in filling up our shelves with games that nobody wants to play just so we can say that we have more games." Discuss."
...because this worked out so well for the 64, didn't it? The PSN line up, in the US at least, is sorely lacking. I'd be happy to give them free money for more ps1 games, but it seems like they aren't interested. Funny, because it seems that the Japanese PSN store is happy to take my money (Adventure of Little Ralph ftw!) Also ont he PSN front, where was Wipeout HD? Seriously. I find it's absence very, very disturbing.
This conference ensured that my spending habits on Sony platforms stay exactly the same: super cheap ps2 games, import shooter collections for PSP, and the occasional PSN download game. Wasn't a fan of Resistance 1, Ratchet/Clank are wearing out their welcome, the less said about the DC MMO the better, and MAG is already so complicated I don't care much.
Lastly, Warhawk update for free! Hooray!
So after all the conferences...
MS: B+ | Netflix is awesome, and nobody saw the FF13 announcement coming. The bitter fanboy tears alone of this was magic enough for me. Lips looks like a lot of fun also.
Nintendo: B- | Every piece of software displayed there will be among the biggest sellers in the NPDs upon release. It may not be what "gamers" want, but it's what their audience wants. Also, Animal Crossing makes me smile.
Sony: C | This conference was "meh" from beginning to end. Flower looked pretty, but I can't say I'm looking forward to many games there. The video marketplace was unimpressive and (with Netflix now on 360) antiquated. Flower looked nice, but there are no disc games for either PSP or PS3 that I want to buy.
Sidenote to Mr. Tretton: Stop making fun of my Singstar performance in conferences. I know I suck, thx!
One more thing...
In my opinion, with no release date in sight or announced at the event, Home is officially a waste of Sony's time now. It's taken too long, is a bore in beta, and is making progress at the speed of snail.
Cut features, wrap it up, call it a day and release it so we can stop hearing about it at every press event.
Considering the huge amount of awesome games on XBLA, and the rather lackluster amount of awesome games on PSN, I really don't see what he's talking about there.
I think that Sony gave the best one there, if no one noticed all of the companies went on to say how better they were so I am not even looking at that since it is just school yard.
MS: It had me muting most of the time and the only really good highlight was Resident Evil since I stopped liking Final Fantasy after 7 and 8 and I also know that the new FF for 2 platform is just for NA since 360 is not well received in Japan, I ended up just turning the channel ( And this is from a person who has an Xbox and a 360) altogether at times.
Nintendo: the company that was my first console made me cringe with theirs and even muting was not enough to stop the cringe again the channel was turned( I still love my GameCube and want a Wii)and I did not even go back but from the video's I seen to see what I did miss I am glad I did turn.
Sony was the only one I sat through and had me interested as well as entertained I never look at shows like this expecting to see something to the point that if it's not shown I will think that it failed but I enjoyed myself and glad that the compony is sticking by all their consoles and not just focusing on the one next gen one like others are. I am still going to get my PS3 even if I have a great time with my PS2.
Sony kept me watching.
I am not going to go the route of saying one company is better then the other I am just saying out of them all I gave a chance I looked at Sony's from start to finish without the mute.
I refuse to fight over systems they are all doing the same thing for us and that is play games and again all the Conferences had the 'We are better' thing going which made me giggle since they are talking about us the people who gave them the money and that is all we really are to them something to put on stats and boast about which is why I refuse to say I like one over the other.
Yes sorry for the babble...Just putting what I thought out there but I am not sorry for how I felt. Sony was an A while MS was a D+ and Nintendo just failed but I still love them all the same.